Corey Lewandowski's work as a CNN commentator makes clear that he hasn't shed the mentality of a Donald Trump operative — and the perception that he is still shilling for the Republican presidential nominee surely won't change after colleague John King tweeted a picture of the former campaign manager talking to Trump by phone on set, apparently during a commercial break early Friday.

King and Lewandowski were panelists during CNN's post-event coverage of Trump's address to the Republican National Convention. The photo appears to have been shot from King's position opposite Lewandowski at the cable channel's curved desk inside Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Lewandowski was back on the air later Friday morning on "New Day," and host Alisyn Camerota asked what he discussed with his ex-boss.

"You know, Mr. Trump called to actually say thank you for the hard work that I put in for the campaign," Lewandowski said. "And I obviously said thank you back, and I said congratulations. It was a big night for him and his family. They deserved to be the center of attention. They did a great job — 14 months of hard work that they put in when many, many pundits, including many people at this network, said Donald Trump will never be a serious candidate, he would never beat the greatest field ever assembled. Donald Trump has proven every pundit wrong, shy of a very few who said he would be where he is today. And he will continue to prove the pundits wrong who say he can't beat Hillary Clinton come November."

As King noted in his tweet, some people still involved in Trump's campaign would prefer that Lewandowski keep his distance. Lewandowski said Tuesday that his onetime internal rival, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, should resign if he approved Melania Trump's convention address, which plagiarized portions of a speech Michelle Obama delivered to the Democratic convention eight years ago. Politico reported that some Trump aides were privately accusing Lewandowski of sabotage. Donald Trump Jr. slammed Lewandowski's remark publicly.

"He's not here anymore," Trump Jr. said. "You want to try and maintain relevance, you want to be on TV, you want to do these things."

The apparent grudge against Manafort aside, Lewandowski has remained an unwavering Donald Trump cheerleader at CNN. And Trump's phone call after his speech — assuming it really was just to say thank you — can be viewed as an example of the graciousness his daughter Ivanka Trump described in her introduction Thursday night.

But it can also be seen as an indication that Lewandowski is still taking orders from Trump, for whom he was also a delegate at the convention and from whom he continues to receive severance pay. In any case, there is little difference between the analysis Lewandowski provides now as a CNN employee and the talking points he recited as a top aide to Trump.